Thank you, Jodi Oliver & The Author Agency, for this eArc in exchange for an honest review. 

Book 3 in the Chicago Thunder series follows Zach, our quiet, gentle giant with a sweet tooth and his childhood best friend Carter. Zach has secretly been in love with Carter for years and watching him enter into relationships has been incredibly hard, so when it happens again when Zach and Carter are spending their off seasons together like they usually do Zach can't put himself through it again and decides to leave early. Carter is devastated by this, and it is the catalyst to him slowly realising that what he has felt for Zach all these years has been way more than friendship. 

Omg these two! 😍 I adore them. I think this is my favourite of the series so far, I just loved their relationship both as friends and how they became more. There were parts of this story that made my heart ache for the both of them, and I wasn't expecting it to hit me in the feels as much as it did. The found family vibes that I felt were missing a bit from book two were back in this one, and it was a cute, cosy, easy, warm hug of a read. The codependency, pining, platonic and eventually romantic love and affection these two displayed warmed my heart, and I really loved them together. I appreciated the representation of how dangerous playing professional sports can be, and as someone who also suffers from migraines, I felt the depictions of them through Zachs character was done well and was realistic. 

The story overall is well paced, with good humour and spice throughout. This is one of the best childhood friends to lovers books I have read as you really feel the connection between these two before anything remotely romantic happens, and I loved that. These two definitely give off soul mate vibes, and I'm here for it! This book is released on November 14th and can be read as a standalone, although I totally recommend reading the previous two books in this series as Jodi knows how to write a great cosy MM sports romance! 🌶🌶